Hi all,

The new chat is now live on Write Out Loud. Some advantages this brings over the old chat system:
1) More responsive
2) Chat with more than one other person
3) Control who can send you invites.

After logging in, you will see a Chat button at the top of the page. Pressing this will show a new Chat Tab which will list who is available for chat and allow you to start a new chat room. After a few seconds the button will update to tell you how many people are available to chat.

Once a new chat room is created, you can invite one or more users to it.

If you would prefer not to be disturbed, you can prevent some or all users from sending chat invites by selecting "Block all chat invites" in the chat tab. There is also a new tab in Account -> Settings to control this.

After entering a chat room, the "Settings" tab will also show help on how to use it.

Please note that this will only work in recent browser versions.

This is a new feature and there may be some issues we are not yet aware of. Please post your feedback / problems / questions here.

Paul

Hi Colin,

Thanks for the feedback. Yes, it does replace the listing of who is online as that is now shown in the chat tab.

The display does change depending on screen width. I'll have a look why the "Hide Chat" isn't sticking.

Paul

Colin, if you now choose to hide the chat, it should remain hidden for the duration of your log in. Equally if someone wants it shown, it will remain shown when changing page.

Hi Colin,

No idea about jumping down the page. I'd be interested to know if anyone else reading this has had a similar issue?

At the moment we don't store a larger version of blog photos. It is certainly something we can conside for the future.

Paul

I hope this new feature doesn't discourage people from using the site..it seems very intrusive as the "chat" sidebar still opens at every movement between pages within the WoL site. And, I hope I'm not the only one to notice that there is a disparity between users shown "online" before login, and users shown in chat after login. I'm sure you know by now, there's lots of debugging to be done.

I realize it can be a tough job and thanks for trying..well wishes,

elP

Paul, the thing that is annoying me about this new chat thingy is that it obscures about 20% of my WOL screen (right hand side). I do not appear to be able to shift it. I do not and never will "chat" so find it an irritating development.

That's because you're so miserable, Graham. (Hang about; I should have posted that in the Chat).

Hi all,

Thanks for the feedback.

I have found and fixed an issue where hiding the chat using the "Chat" button would stick but clicking the link at the top of the chat panel would not after changing page. That issue should now be resolved. elPintor, Graham, I'd be grateful if you could let me know if this fixes your issue. If not, I'll investigate other solutions.

The discrepancy between the "Users Online" listed before and after logging in is known about and understood. The method used to determine this before logging in is the same as it always was in the past. It isn't accurate. Users may be shown in this list even though they left the site several minutes earlier and can also be removed from the list prematurely. With the implementation of the new chat system we can determine much more accurately when a user is active on the site and therefore potentially available for chat. This new method of determining when a user is active is only used after logging in.

Do you look at the list of who is online? Would you like an option never to appear in it?

To answer Colin - yes, we do have users using the chat.

Please do report "irritations" and don't assume we already know about them. Either here or by email or using the internal messaging system. We won't act on every suggestion but we'll make every effort to fix something that is clearly a bug.

Regards,

Paul

Hi, Paul,

Thanks--the sidebar now stays closed while navigating the site.

elP

Hello Paul,
No the same exists on my Mac laptop.

Graham

Hi Graham,

To be clear, the problem you see is that you can't hide it at all rather than it reappearing when you move between pages?

Are you browsing with Safari? Can you tell me which version?

Thanks,

Paul

Hi Graham,

I've made a change which could help on some versions of Safari on the assumption this could be the problem. I've not seen the problem myself so cannot know fully if it is fixed. Please let me know if clicking the Chat button or "Chat" link at top of the chat bar hides it.

Regards,

Paul

Hello Paul, hands full babysitting grandchildren this weekend but have just taken a look and you seem to have sorted it out. my Safari is very old but I will be splashing out for a new Mac in a week or so. It will be nice to be able to do more stuff with it too as so many applications have stopped working on my release 10.5.8.

Thanks for sorting it out, still not a chatter though.